The greatest T20 player: Narine or Hussey? Rashid or Ajmal?

Here's our next set of match-ups to determine the greatest T20 cricketer. The player with more votes progresses to the round of 16.

Note: Voting closes at 6.30am GMT on Saturday, April 4. Click here to refresh the page if the polls don't load.

Sunil Narine
Runs 2241 Ave 14.84 SR 146.95
Wickets 379 Ave 20.36 ER 6.02

Breaking through in the era of mystery spin, Narine's bewitching performances for Trinidad & Tobago in the 2011 Champions League T20 convinced Kolkata Knight Riders to bid $700,000 for him ahead of the 2012 IPL. The move paid off: he took 24 wickets while conceding 5.47 runs per over, and was the MVP as they stormed to a maiden title. Later that year he took 3 for 9 in West Indies' first T20 World Cup win. Although he has had to rework his action, Narine has maintained his remarkable record: between the sixth and 321st games of his career, his economy rate remained below six. With no batting record of note in the early years of his career, Narine became an improbable revolutionary when he was used as a pinch-hitting opening batsman on New Year's Day in 2017. Since then, he has struck at 153.35 and attacked from ball one. He's hugely effective at clearing the inner ring and is brutal against spin.

Michael Hussey
Runs 4569 Ave 37.45 SR 124.90

Few come close to Hussey in terms of longevity and consistency, and he is among only a handful of players to have enjoyed success both with opening and in the middle order. He faced the first ball for Northants on the Twenty20 Cup's opening night in 2003 and played in the first-ever T20I. Plenty of other highlights followed: his 60 not out off 24 balls in the World T20 semi-final against Pakistan in 2010 was one of the format's defining innings; he was Chennai Super Kings' leading scorer in their 2011 IPL triumph after becoming Matthew Hayden's successor at the top of the order; and was Sydney Thunder's linchpin as he led them to a maiden Big Bash title in 2015-16.

Rashid Khan
Wickets 296 Ave 17.22 ER 6.30

Rashid was earmarked as Afghanistan's first true global star when he made his debut as a 17-year-old, and everything he has done since has confirmed the early hype. He first came to notice internationally by taking 2 for 26 in a six-run win over eventual champions West Indies at the 2016 T20 World Cup. He was picked for the IPL in 2017 and has been among the top ten wicket-takers in all three editions he has played in. For the Guyana Amazon Warriors, he took the first ever CPL hat-trick in 2017, and later that year, he helped the Adelaide Strikers to the BBL title. He became the first cricketer to take four wickets in four balls in a T20I, against Ireland in 2019. At 21, he is already the fourth-highest T20I wicket-taker.

Saeed Ajmal
Wickets 271 Average 17.36 ER 6.50

Ajmal, ever-present in T20Is for much of the first half of this decade, enjoyed such control over his offspin and his wily variations that it made him unplayable on occasions. He was part of the Pakistan side that won the T20 World Cup in 2009. Despite famously being at the wrong end of a Michael Hussey onslaught in the 2010 T20 World Cup semi-final, he came out on top more often than not. On tracks in the UAE and the subcontinent, he delivered with devastating regularity for several years. Only four bowlers have taken more T20I wickets than him, and of those, only Rashid Khan has a better average or economy rate. Domestically, he was the Player-of-the-Match in the ABN-AMRO Cup final in 2005. But Ajmal was never the same after receiving an ICC ban for an illegal action in 2014, around the time T20 leagues really began to proliferate.

Thanks for voting. You can nominate the 32nd player to feature in the match-ups for the round of 32 here (Google form). Please send in your choice by Sunday, April 5.